The Fighting 44s

Planet B-Boy

I watch a lot of movies, and obviously, I try to watch ones that I think will be good or at least entertaining… but every once in awhile, I do happen to see a film that completely blows my expectations away and I leave the movie theater with a happy feeling that makes me wanna tell all my friends to see the movie.

Planet B-Boy is one of those rare movies.

GO SEE IT.

I first heard of Planet B-Boy from AngryAsianMan and became interested naturally out of my own fascination with hip-hop culture, however I wondered if a documentary film about the subject of b-boying could actually involve more than just the filming of battles. After all, one could just surf YouTube or other video sharing sites for videos of guys breakdancing (like the one I took this year at the Korean culture festival in FedWay).

(photos by Ray Demski)The genius of Benson Lee’s Planet B-Boy is that the documentary manages to weave together several strands - live footage of breakdancing, the history of the artform of b-boying, and the personal stories of five different b-boy crews from different countries competing in the 2005 “Battle of the Year” competition - Knuckle Head Zoo (USA), Phase-T (France), Ichigeki (Japan), Last For One (S. Korea), and the defending 2004 champs, Gamblerz (S. Korea).

While the live footage of breakdancing is awe-inspiring, the best parts of the movie are in how well the stories of the individuals involved in the b-boy crews are told. Two stories in particular moved me - a b-boy from Japan struggling with obligations to his family’s tea business and a b-boy from “the countryside” of South Korea trying to mend a broken relationship with his father. Even for someone who might not be interested in hip-hop or b-boying, these kinds of personal narratives are deeply compelling.

This is a hidden gem of movie… don’t miss it! It’ll only be shown in Seattle for the rest of this week, so check out the showtimes right here. For those of you now in Seattle, check the top image for listings in a city near you.

Some videos from the film:

• Planet B-Boy Trailer
• Planet B-Boy: Korea
• Planet B-Boy: Run DMZ
• Ichigeki BOTY 2005 Performance (awesome!)
• Last For One Official Site (in Korean)

(This post mirrored here)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 12:28 am and is filed under Arts & Literature, Entertainment & Media, Opinion, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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